The Creativity Code: How AI Is Learning to Write, Paint and Think

By: Marcus du Sautoy

Narrated by: Rich Keeble

Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

As a species, we have an extraordinary ability to create works of art that elevate, expand and transform what it means to be human. The novels of Henry James can communicate the inner world of one human being to another. The music of Wagner or Schubert takes us on an emotional roller-coaster ride as we give ourselves up to their sublime sounds.    

These are the expressions of what Marcus du Sautoy calls ‘the creativity code’. Yet some believe that the new developments in AI and machine learning are so sophisticated that they can learn what it means to be human - that they can crack the code. 

• Technology has always allowed us to extend our understanding of being human. But will the new tools of AI allow to us to create in different ways?
• Could recent developments in AI and machine learning also mean that it is no longer just human beings who can create art? 
• And creativity, like consciousness, is one of those words that is hard to pin down: what is it that we are challenging these machines to do?

In The Creativity Code, Marcus du Sautoy examines what these new developments might mean, for both the creative arts and his own subject: mathematics. From the Turing test to AlphaGo, are there limits to what algorithms can achieve, or might they be able to perfectly mimic human creativity? And what’s more, could they help Marcus to see more deeply into the complex mathematical problems with which he so often wrestles?  

©2019 Marcus du Sautoy (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

The most well researched book on AI.

Brilliant book which gives a well researched low down on AI past, present and future. It provides an insight into the future of AI through the lense of creativity.

Misleading Title

This is a book by a mathmatician about maths. Much more so than about AI creativity. I persevered up until chapter 13 then just couldn't stand listening to any more about prime numbers, equations or algebra. There's a couple of interesting chapters in there but overall just felt too much off topic and not at all what I wanted to listen to.

I wish the author narrated this fabulous book

This has been my most anticipated title since Prof du Sautoy’s ‘what we cannot know’. I’ve really enjoyed the content of this book and I love the authors ability to communicate the story of AI in such an engaging way. When I saw that the book wasn’t to be narrated by him I was shocked as his performance in What we cannot know had received such wide acclaim. I don’t understand why publishers and perhaps Audible just don’t seem to get it that we want the author to narrate books. Disappointed with a narrator who can’t even pronounce the authors name correctly at the start and adds none of Tehran humour that the author lyrically added to his previous title.

Interesting angle

Du Sautoy gets close to but does not quite immerse himself in some of linguistic /philosophical issues so I found this a bit unsatisfying but it is a good up to date primer